Fallingwater

Jean, Jessie, and I left Chambersburg on Sunday morning a week ago around 8, with a noon appointment at Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.

We eased through back country hills, so different from the coastal area I'd recently left. Here, we were mostly going up or down. Along the coast, if you're headed uphill, it's a bridge or an overpass. Flat. Straight. Many roads went for miles without a slight curve.

In southern Pennsylvania, a straight stretch of road may last a quarter mile. Up, down, curve. Up, down. That's the area we drove, an area whose roadsides are green and lush.

We arrived at Fallingwater and spilled out of the car, ready for our tour, but early. We hit the gift shop ($50 disappeared there) and soon it was time for our tour.

Over the years I'd read about Fallingwater and had seen photos, but nothing, nothing, nothing prepared me for is simple elegance. Although massive, it balances as though dainty. It fits its setting, as though it has stood there always. Wright, the master of merging nature and architecture.

Tour groups are about a dozen people, and although there is no real warning, the tour, like southern Pennsylvania, is all about up and down and few straight lines. The setting is stunning: green hills and a creek spilling over boulders. Wright's house juts out over the creek, each room and deck with its own private view.

The living room area is large with views both up and down the creek. It's finest point, to me, is a stairwell that descends from the room into the creek. The stairway is covered with operable windows, so even on coldest days one can sit and look directly into the water. The photo to the left was taken from the outside, showing the stairs that go up into the living room.

I have no interior photo of this as interior photos were not allowed, and our movements were monitored by video cameras in each room. Generally, I would resent and complain about being monitored in such a way, but the space was so magical, I was so incredibly blessed to be there, that I put my feelings aside and wallowed in the beauty. (search on the internet - you can find interior photos, just none by me)

The entire house is balanced on boulders, is constructed of flagstone, and has sealed flagstone floors. Decks and rooms jut out on all sides. It balances perfectly, all attached to a massive fireplace built onto the main boulder. The separation between inside and outside is blurry. Even in the small, cozy bedrooms, the out-of-doors is a part of the room.

After our visit, we wound through more hills, stopping in the village of Ohiopyle to walk by the river, then moved on to Morgantown, West Virginia. Checked into the historic Morgan Hotel and ate across the street at Madelines. Not just a yummy restaurant: I left my Discover Card there, and when I noticed and called, the express mailed it to me so I had it the following day.

Jessie and I wandered by the river, lay on the dock. Dozed. Breakfast the next morning at the Blue Moose Cafe, then back to Louisville.